President Trump on Friday bragged that redoing a bathroom off the White House’s Lincoln Bedroom in heaps of gleaming white marble was more appropriate for the time of the Civil War-era president.
“It was renovated in the 1940s in an art deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” Trump wrote on Truth Social “I did it in black and white polished Statuary marble. This was very appropriate for the time of Abraham Lincoln and, in fact, could be the marble that was originally there!”
The president spoke of his plans for the room earlier this month.
“It’s a style that is not good … it is actually art deco and art deco doesn’t go with 1850 and civil wars,” he said.
“So, I ripped it apart,” he added, “and we built a bathroom that’s absolutely gorgeous and totally keeping in that time because the Lincoln bedroom is so incredible for those of you who have seen it.”
Though the White House has historically featured both marble architectural features and stone statues, the luxury gold-and-marble renovation of the bathroom does not appear to match the historical, more muted look of the Lincoln Bedroom and its nearby quarters in the White House.
The room, which Lincoln himself used as an office and state room, was carpeted and featured wallpaper. A nearby room, known then as the Prince of Wales Room, was filled with embellished cloth draperies.
An 1862 newspaper article describes both rooms as "very neatly papered, but should be better furnished. All the furniture is exceedingly old, and is too ricketty to venerate.”
The Independent has contacted the White House Historical Association for comment on the accuracy of the president’s claims.
Presidents throughout U.S. history have renovated the White House, including a sweeping mid-century fix-up under President Harry S. Truman that installed the bathroom recently in Trump’s sights.
President Trump is no different, and the Republican has decked out his office in what he says are 24-karat gold adornments, though internet sleuths believe some of the new furnishings are spray-painted plastic from Home Depot.
More consequentially, Trump has demolished large parts of the East Wing to make way for a $300 million ballroom, much of it funded by major corporations and past donors to the president.
A majority of Americans oppose the decision to tear down the wing to build the ballroom, recent polling found.
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